Baking With My Mom and A Mini Giveaway

Before I tell you about these muffins I wanted to apologize for not checking in on your blogs over the past few days. I will get to them I promise, but I've been so sick that I haven't really been on the computer much. A couple weeks ago I noticed wheezing in my chest but I felt fine. I went to the doctor a few days later and was diagnosed with bronchitis. A took antibiotics, cough syrup and used an inhaler for a week and with each passing day I felt worse, not better. I went to get a chest x-ray and now I have pneumonia and I'm feeling pretty rotten. On top of all that I've developed a drug allergy and keep randomly breaking out in a rash all over my body. Fun times people.

Okay, enough of the pity party. I made these muffins with my momma! My mom is not much of a baker, mostly because she doesn't have the patience to follow a recipe. She just like to throw things in a pot and see how it turns out. That works out well if her creations aren't so great because she can't replicate them, but if something turns out really well and we all love it, she can never reproduce it. ha! Gotta love her. Anyway, I mentioned to her that I'd like to have her over to bake with me and she was so excited and knew just what she wanted to make. She saw a recipe in Parade Magazine for Dorie's lemon sour cream muffins and clipped it right away. It just so happens that I clipped the same recipe and I had all the ingredients to make them.

My mom mentioned that she painted her finger nails and I was teasing her telling her that she painted them for her guest appearance on my blog. I asked her to show them to me (so I could show them to you) and this is what she gave me. ha ha! Guess I asked for that one :-) Love you mom.

The recipe came together really quickly. We wanted them extra lemony so I added more lemon zest and juice. And I added a lemon sugar topping to them which made the tops super delicious but the muffin itself was mediocre at best and not very lemony. They were not very sweet and were very biscuit-like in texture and taste. The batter was very thick so I added a couple tablespoons of buttermilk to thin it out and that worked well. To make these more flavorful, we sliced them in half, buttered them and slathered on some tangy lemon curd. Besides baking with my mom, that was the best part. Then again you can slather just about anything with butter and lemon curd and it'll be good!

Lemony Sour Cream Muffins adapted from Dorie Greenspan via Parade

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• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced (I used 2- see note)
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp lemon extract
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp. buttermilk (see note)

Lemon Sugar:

• 6 teaspoons sugar
• Zest of one lemon

In a small bowl, combine the 6 tsp. of granulated sugar and zest of one lemon. Mix together and set aside while you make the batter.

Whisk the dry ingredients, including the lemon zest, together in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients, including the lemon juice.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry. Gently but quickly stir everything together. Don’t worry if you have a few lumps—they’re better than an overmixed batter.

Spoon batter into paper-lined or greased tins. Divide batter between 12 cups. Top each muffin with about 1/2 tsp. lemon sugar.

Bake at 400º for 18 to 20 minutes, until muffins are golden. Cool 5 minutes before unmolding.

NOTE: My batter was super thick so I added the juice of an extra lemon and a couple tablespoons of buttermilk to help thin it out.

Now on to the mini giveaway. When I said mini, I meant mini. My mom helped me pick these out and I thought they were too cute to pass up so I wanted to share with you. I liked them because their textures were so realistic.

Since I have 3 kitchen timers, I will choose 3 winners. Please let me know which one you'd prefer and I'll do my best to accommodate you. If you'd rather opt out of the giveaway, just say so in the comments section. One comment per person please.

Giveaway open to US residents only. The winners will be revealed on Wednesday. Be sure I can contact you if you win!